Why English guns are so expensive... 1) Name 2) Labor (specifically man-hours that go into building a double & English Labor rates.) 3) Because the Market will Pay the prices!

They keep raising prices, and keep taking more orders... (I'd do the same if it were my business.) CNC machining HAS to have lowered thier cost of building these things, but you can bet that they aren't going to "pass the savings along!"

The thing that makes the Chapuis unique (from a cost perspective) is that they have really been sort of "reverse-engineered" as a gun that can be made largely by machining processes. Rather than taking a traditional English design and replicating it with machines, they came at it from the other perspective, i.e.: "how would a machine build this gun?"

You'll notice for example that the locking system is different - it also contains the ejectors - it's easier to manufacture (by machine) than those typically found on english guns where the ejectors are located in the forearm.

They still have hand-fitting involved, but clearly not as much where more intricate parts have to be fitted.